Continent: Comar City: Rottingdam
by luv101
Summary: Aliens,the MEM, have been sent to the planet of Comar to research the life forms that inhabit it.Unbeknown to them lurked an ancient virus aboard their ship called the Roe. It ravages the people of Comar.Survivors are left with more then scars.review pls!
1. Chapter 1

Her heart jumped in her chest as she raced down the walkway. 'Which way, which way?' She took a sharp right turn and continued to pump her legs, sweat spurting from every pore on her face. Her left hand clutched a very small velvet bag.

Clash! Bang! Came from behind her! She knew she had to hurry. West Rottingdam is a very dangerous place for anyone not marked, also known as a rebel. The KOC, the marked, controls this area of Comar. Vladamir, a General of the KOC army, took the city years ago and left part of his army to make sure the rebels didn't take it back. His men stay perched on top of the clay structures that make up the labrynth. It would be easy for a newcomer to get lost in a place like this on foot but she knew where she was going. Dozens of KOC soldiers lurked from roof top to roof top waiting for a mouse to pounce upon but she was taught to be more silent then a mouse, more silent then even her own shadow.

All of the soldiers have been infected by the Roe and have suffered horribly from painful facial deformities and lacerations as a side effect of the illness. Their bodies have gone into recession now leaving them permanently scarred but also each with their own "gifts". The Roe acts by mutating a humanoids DNA quickly (there haven't been any cases to suggest otherwise) causing the physical body and mind to change radically. The horrible result, in the beginning, left permanent deep tissue scaring for the fortunate; if they lived through the infections. Most of the lucky ones that did manage to survive the changes found themselves with unusual powers. Unmatched strength and agility among the most common side effects of the sickness, also it is whispered among the rebels some can have extraordinary skills that no mere man could posses such as being able to hear through houses; being able to listen to someone's thoughts, control someone's actions, its endless. The illness has gone mostly into remission now which has caused a huge split in the people of Rottingdam. Anyone that has roe, thus far, has become infertile because of the radical changes in the body but most of the original people infected are still alive so no one can tell if you become immortal but the Rebels are looking into it that and so much more. The KOC live in North Rottingdam.

She zig zaged in between the mud pueblo like buildings and homes. Children's toys, having been smashed to bits, sit sadly against the city walls. Her shoes are moccasins, made from treated leather, they help her tread lightly over the sad remains. Cloths lines hung throughout the city with the cloths still on the pins, they waved to her from all corners, filthy from years of neglect. The chill from the air and her surroundings kept her alert and focused. The whole place brought flashes of memories that she had to keep pushed down deep inside or she wouldn't be able to finish her journey, her mission. She was not risking her life for past memories. She had a job to do.

The city is on a hill making navigation through the city extremely tiresome. Her breath came out in puffs. She kept telling herself to breath through her nose and out her mouth but that sometimes didn't happen. The sun had already begun to come up at this point, and she would lose the advantage of the night sky if she didn't move quickly.

Her arms and legs burnt as she pushed past her breaking point. Suddenly she heard a noise and spun pressing her back against one of the walls, a robe hung in front of her concealing her.. Three men hobbled pass her; she waited till they were far enough away to let go of a sigh. Pulling her own gray robe close she took a deep breath and pulled out a piece of paper hidden within her pocket that had lettering on it. It said**: **right on main street, you need to cross it and continue 3 blocks until you see a little restaurant with a brightly colored sign in front and go inside.

She looked toward the red stained sky and gathered herself breathing deeply. She leaned over to look left then right, her heart pounded under her skin. She tucked the small parcel into her bosom gently and pushed off the wall. She darted out of the comfort of the shadows and into the open alleyway. Swoop! Large monstrous arms grabbed her up from behind and lifted her off the ground. She grabbed its wrists and jerked them forward; hunching her back she hitched up her rear pulling on the huge arms. She lifted with her thick legs and tossed him off crashing into the alley way wall, storming over she shoved her foot down on his neck breaking it with a sick crack. She looked both ways; they had made a lot of noise so she ran till she reached the intersection and darted across it with rogue like speed and agility. Constantly looking at the different nooks and crannies that lined the tightly packed city street, she could finally see the sign from a distance and made a run for it. Getting to the door she looked around for anyone, no one. She thought that odd.

She opened the door and slipped inside. Upon entering, the place smelled terrible and gave her the goose bumps; it seemed abandoned. She walked up and around the counter and down the aisle where the people here use to make homemade noodles and fresh dumplings. The sound of a lid falling to the floor alerted her senses; she crouched down in front of the huge grill and wok station. Her stomach tingled ferociously in her belly makinging her want to pee out of excitement and nervousness but she didnt entertain it. Quickly she darted across the small intersection of walls and began to shimmy her way to where the sound originally came from. Jumping up she looked both ways and went down the hallway; upon reaching each door she'd nudge it open with her foot and then would poke her head in trying to be as careful as she could. Upon reaching the last door she nudged it open to see its contents.

A man sat very still in the dark hunched over some paper work muttering to his self incoherently, parchment paper littered the whole room as well as rats, lots of rats. "Jesus Brian what is with the rats around here? Really they are a sight to see compared to you." She made her way into the room. She knew it was him, the glint from the furnace that burnt in the corner of the room cascaded light upon him and his project. He smelled. Bad.

"Did you bring what I need Aigie? I'm so close; I need them to buy the seeds. Come closer let me make sure they are the right ones." Aigie's whole mission was to obtain the seeds; this was the last step. All she had to do was hand over the pearls and they would be her's.

"Oh, ya! Right I have them, they are right here…" She said fumbling embarrassingly around in her bosom. She noticed Brian's back straighten suddenly and he's ears peak with angst. "What's wrong Brian?" She asked.

"Did anyone follow you Aigie? I must know. "His voice was nervous and cracked a bit when he spoke.

"No Brian, I was attacked in an alley several blokes back by some heavy bloke, but I left him there. I made sure to check behind me the whole way so I'm pretty sure I wasn't, but I can't be positive. Why are you so nervous Brian? It's not like it's your first ride." She had stopped messing with the sack in her bosom but merely clutched it. Blood pounded in her ears and her face became hot. The light from a small fire flicked brightly long enough for her to see the side of his face, a liberal amount of dried blood encompassed the side of his face and hair. Dropping her hands, she grasped at her belt where her shooters lay strapped to her black pants cinched at the waist by braided draw strings, the leather was dyed maroon and was braded intricately to hold the shooters in place with specially made knots it was something she had acquired a time before this. It went well with her dark maroon robe. "What's going on Brian?" He knew she was deadly when she was suspicious. She stood in her spot looking at him with worried suspicion.

He began a coughing fit then chuckled nervously his coarse voice getting the better of him, "Nothing is wrong Aigie you are paranoid; I'm just so excited about our research is all, nothing more." He turned his back on her and walked toward his project. "Come over here with that honey I need to check it," She always used to call him that when they were together, now she knew something was wrong… She called him that; he did not call her that. In less then a second she had her shooters in both hands locked and loaded.

"Brian I'm only going to ask you one more time; what's going on?" He was up to something. Flashes of his mind burned through hers; she knew she was being deceived. Her face flushed red. She jerked her head to the right in pain. A man was being beaten in a dark silver room. Two wooden chairs and a table were the décor of the small room. Three men were inside the room; one was shackled to one of the chairs. The man that was shackled was a handsome man with a smug grin on his face. The quiet one stood in the right corner of the room and was tall and very muscular with a bulldog expression if perhaps the dog had gas, really bad gas. The other man was thin and tall towering above the other men in the room. It was him that took the first step toward the prisoner. In a convincing clear crisp voice the man laid pieces of something on the table before the man.

They were release forms. It was for food that was released, on Brian's orders, to the KOC. The men were convinced that the food wasn't just for the KOC, and that the food had been released to the Rebels. On top of the food that was released, the alien's most prized procession, the Mercury Berry, was also released in small quantity.

Brian looked down at the papers and smiled shaking his head telling the men that he knew nothing of the sort. The man knew different and waved his hand toward his burly friend in the corner, the quiet one. The large man walked over to Brian and grabbed him up by the rim of his collar looking at his beautiful face and smiled a twisted grisly smile. Crack! The man slammed his face into Brian's breaking his nose and opening up a cut above his eye. He spit out a large amount of blood onto the floor and table. Wildly he jerked at his restraints hoping something would free him. It was going to be a long night. The small man laughed and waved again. He slammed his face again into Brian's breaking his jaw, a piece of bone protruded from the side of his cheek causing blood to spurt from his face. "Brian," The tall one began leaning over the table and into Brian's face. "Do you remember me?" He leaned down further to Brian's ear dropping down to barely a whisper. Brian's body shook violenty but he maintained his stubborn gruesome stare at his interrogators face. He didn't quiet understand what the man meant until his eyes zoomed in on the skin disorder the tall one had. It was like fresh burnt flesh on the side of his neck that seemed to disappear behind his rustic color tunic. All members of the KOC wear tunics or a maroon or rust color as a way to pay tribute to their Alien masters.

"Cicerill," Brian said pointing at the tall man and with sudden realization of the other man in the rooms name, "Remen, they sent you two to interrogate me?" Brian said in a confused tone. He then erupted in a roar of laughter. "HAHAHAHA," he laughed spraying particles of blood everywhere.

"Yes, now I want to know how you got these items to the rebels and who helped you." Brain laughed heartily again. Gathering a wad of blood in his mouth he hurled it onto Cicerill. It was going to be a long night.

It took a long time for Brian to give her up, she respected that, but he did give her up. She shook her head in disgust. "Brian I would've died before I give up you. I guess your not the type to return the gratitude. I hope to see you when I hold God's hand and walk through the healing light of the sun" She said not even slightly amused.

"What can I say Aigie, I'm sorry." He said his voice quivering a little.

"How long do I have?" It was rhetorical.

"What can I say Aigie," He repeated.

"Nothing," She shot him five times.


	2. Chapter 2

She knew she didn't have very much time to get out of here. The team that passed her wouldn't be far behind. She ran to the front of the restaurant taking a quick glance out the dusty window to the left of the door. Four men, one must've joined the team, were hulking toward her. Dusk in West Rottingdam comes swiftly making the men's faces shadows from the distance which was appropriate. She needed to find a different way of escape, and since she couldn't go out the front and the back it is probably swarming with KOC she knew shed have to take to the sewers. Roger, also known as the birdman, said that it was hidden behind something. "Damnit Roger why couldn't you have been more specific?," she whispered angrily to herself. "Think, think," But she couldn't think all she could hear is Rogers damn laughing! BOOM! BOOM! They are trying to break down the door! She needed to gather her wits. BOOM! She was startled out of her trance when the front door behind her cracked against their assaults. On instinct she ran to the very back of the restaurant, jumping over anything and everything to get there, when she made it all the way to the back last room her heart slammed into her chest. It was a bathroom!

She hurried inside locking the door behind her, not that it would help much but it would stall them a little and give her time to think. Everything in the bathroom was white except the two tiles that were infront of the toilet. There was a wall separating the toilet and the sink. The whole room was a illuminated by a window above the toilet, but it was barred in. She laughed? Why did she run in here? Because her sickness told her to. Great. Exhausted from everything and knowing she was going to get caught she flopped down on the toilet, her feet slapping against the black tiles that were laid out infront of the toilet. Then she her heart skipped a beat as the whole back of the toilet and the wall disconnected itself sliding forward. She leaned down and pulled and wiggled the toilet towards her as hard as she could. Finally success! A narrow passageway behind the toilet presented itself. Leaning down she ripped three pieces from her robe franticly. Two of the pieces she wrapped around her knees and another around the palm of her hand. She looked up at the bathroom window somehow knew she was gonna be able to break it, a lesson her mother taught her during the summer bootcamp. Without a second thought she slammed her palm in the window smashing it into pieces. The biggest piece of glass she picked up and was gonna take with her so she ripped another strip of her robe and wrapped it around the glass. Another lesson her mother taught her, always have a weapon of some kind. She slid behind the toilet pulling it toward her. It was a tight fit only about three feet by two feet so she was gonna have to crawl. She pulled her collar up over her nose and began her decent down the disgusting tunnel.

The KOC thugs stomped down the main hall of the restraunt ripping doors off their hinges one by one until they got to the last door. Suddenly their stamped stopped and the short one of the group knocked softly at the door.

"You know my dear it is a capital offence to assault and evade an officer of the KOC? Do you have any idea who's son you murdered? His father will find great pleasure and seeing you be drowned, just as his son drowned in his own blood." His voice was slick greasy. His yellow teeth looked like gnarled shark teeth showing through the long black hair that covered his face. Long is the face of a yellow bellied KOC officer. He knocked again this time harder on the door shaking it. "If you don't come out I will tear this door down!" He screamed, then pressing his left cheek against the door sniffing it deeply. He could smell everything on and in her and he liked her smell. He looked behind with his right eye if the men were looking and then licked the door quickly. Chuckling deeply he knew he was gonna have a good time with this one. "Alright you leave no choice cherry, tear it down boys!" Two monsters of men flexed their huge arm muscles at each other.

"Do you want to do the honors Briner? Or shall I?" He said laughing arrogantly as he pumped his arms up to the point of eruption. "It doesn't matter I don't want you to get hurt for our next match. Maybe you will last longer." He roared with laughter and charged up to the door giving it a right side kick. It split but it didn't go anywhere. It was Briner's turn to laugh. "Maybe you need to drink a few more pints judge" He then ran up to the door slamming his shoulder into it with all his might. It cracked again but didn't budge. They both stood there with ego's broken and bruised for a minute but made up quickly "Together then?," Judge asked. They looked longingly at each other.

"You men disgust me now, GET THIS DOOR DOWN OPEN!" His senses were on fire, cherry was all he could smell!

The dark was so intense and the muck so dense in the tunnel it seemed like hours as she crawled through the bowels of the city. The cloth she put on her knees was long gone now. For the first half an hour it wasn't so bad but as she got further and further to the outskirts of West Rottingdam and closer to central Rottingdam the muck became thicker and much more grotesque. The restaurant that she was crawling under once was full of stories and laughter. It was a place where rebel leaders, like her mother, went when they weren't out trying to protect the city walls; it was a place of relaxation. No one had money just commodities and services to provide, money without value has not been used for over 60 years ever since the MEM came. So many people died when they arrived. It was the sickness that they brought with them, the roe. Their history varies from person to person and place to place but Aigie's grandma grew up during some of the worst of it before the sickness mutated. Her grandmother's mother died within just a few months of the alien's arrival. The sickness had spread so quickly that the virus control groups of that time didn't have the equipment or resources to find a cure. It has been said that there was only one other time like this in our history and that was a thousand years ago when the black plague came and sickened almost half of the worlds population, killing a third. The people of Comar didn't know what to do with all the bodies and so that had to start burning them. Everyone had objected to mass graves and burnings in the beginning of the Roe's time but after a week the smell had become so overwhelming and sickening that they were forced to change their minds.

Her grandma did say she saw an alien once, when she was a teen. It was soon after her mother had caught the roe. Her mother, Margret was in bed shaking and withering in pain. Sandy, Aigie's grandma, sat in the wooden rocking chair next to the bed. The house was small and had no bedrooms. Her mother lay in the corner on the only bed. The room was scarce of furniture with only: a table in the middle with two chairs, a rocking chair next to the bed and a bedpan, were its modest decorations. Margaret and Sandy were all alone because everyone else had died. They decided to move up to this area in the mountains because of its wonderful weather and they had a cousin that owned a cabin before the sickness that could help them out. When they arrived Berdetta, the cousin, had already passed on in the very same bed margret lay upon and had to be buried. The quilt her mother clung too was one she had made when Sandy was just a little girl. Sandy tried not to cry in front of her mom. Margrets lethargic weak condition made sandy worry every second of everyday but she had to be strong like her mom for she had only cried out once when Sandy was cauterizing and stitching the open sores on her back. The virus use to show up as a bruise and then it would begin to leak puss. Her mothers entire body and face was covered in the bruises and the only way to stop the wound from further opening is to lance, make a small incision, the bruise before it begins to leak. Then it must be completely drained and wash. Then it must be sealed. With the bigger gashes Sandy had to heat the metal of a hammer under the wood fire in the living area until it was red hot. She would then lean over her mom and would count to three. She never would make it to three, to make the anticipation easier.

The gashes on her beautiful face Sandy insisted on stitching, which has always lingered in her mind since then as a cause of her mother's death. Every time she stuck the needle into the flesh she winced and cried inside. Her mother was so strong. She actually smiled when Aigie was done with her cheek. After stitching her mother she laid her on her good side so that she could sleep. Only after she falls asleep does Aigie really know the pain her mother was enduring. That is when Sandy watches her the closest.

It was late in the evening, a few weeks after reaching the cabin in the mountains, and Sandy was rocking back and forth in the rocking chair next to her mother trying to clear her head when all of a sudden she hears a slight knock at the door. She sighed; she had just got to a nice place!

She got up slowly so as not to wake her mother and walked quietly over picking up her hatchet that rested against the wall next to the door. Opening it slowly only a sliver she peaked an eye out. An extremely handsome man was on the other side. His hair was white and long passed his shoulders and he had the greenest eyes she had ever seen. "Ma'am, I have traveled a long way and seek shelter from the blizzard, already there is three feet of snow on the ground and I have been on foot for the last three days. Please Ma'am I am not here to cause trouble." He said, his mouth attracting her attention. The skin of his lips had been completely ripped from the winter winds of the mountains and his face looked red and burnt. She looked at him. Up and then down slowly squinting her hazel eyes.

"Alright but my mom is sick in here and your going to have to be quiet because she just went to sleep and her screaming has just stopped. And if you try anything, I'm warning you now, I will cut your manhood off and it wont be my momma that will need to be cauterized, it will be you." She said, her eyes shining as she leaned closer to him holding the door open with her left hand and holding a hatchet in her right hand.

"Yes ma'am" Was all he said as he entered the house. She closed the door and followed behind him as he entered the cabin all the way heading straight for the fireplace. The fireplace was to the left of her rocking chair which looked uncomfortable to her. She wanted to stay vigilant and ready if this stranger decided to turn on her at some point into the night. She felt like she was ready to handle herself is she needed to but she sat down anyway and began to rock to the crackle of the fire. As she sat down he moved a safe distance away from her on the other side of the fireplace. He leaned close to warm up but his hands and face had been exposed so long that they burned fiercely as the nerves in his body began to regain sensation. Quickly he jumped up from his spot on the floor and moved to the other side of the room in what seemed like just a second and sat down at the table in the chair opposite of the fire.

He really was beautiful but why was he here? "Why are you here, in these parts? There isn't a living soul for miles and you said you have been walking for three days? It would take months to walk out of these mountains. So I am going to ask again: why are you here, in these parts?"

He seemed a little startled at the brash way she spoke. "Well, honestly, we just came here to investigate the planet but our ship crashed and now we cant go back home. I lied when I said I had been walking for three days. I've been walking for three months now, constantly walking and witnessing such pain and sorrow all around me. I didn't want this to happen, it wasn't planned. The sickness is so old and forgotten that it didn't even occur to us that it could wipe this planets humanoid species out. If I had any idea I would've never come to this planet, Never! I thought that if I started walking id be able to help the people that are still alive. Most of the people that are still alive are fighting the sickness; you are the first I've come across that hasn't been infected. I can't tell you how many bodies I've walked over just to meet you, someone not infected." He said seriously in a low voice.

"For now at least," she leaned over knocking on wood so as not to jinx herself. "Mom has been touch and go for a few days now, " she lowered her voice, "Her wounds are so.. terrifying. I have done the best I can but its my mom, I don't know what I'm gonna do." Turning toward her mother she shook her head and then began to tickle her arm and shoulder, her mother was everything to her.

"Why did you knock on that after you said for now atleast?" The man asked.

"When I said 'for now at least' it was sarcastic. So I knocked on wood so I don't make god angry at my ungratefulness because I don't want to be infected but Id rather it be me then her." Pointing to her mom she burst into tears.

"Im sorry for all of this and getting you upset. I hope your mom becomes well again…..I think it is time to sleep, thank you very much for your hospitality. Ill be gone before the dawn, I promise." She nodded her head at him sniffling back her cries. It was comforting to hear a male's voice for the moment but she turned away to look back at her mom and to go back to rocking in her chair. He crossed his arms in front of himself on the table laying his head down on them closing his eyes. When she thought he wasn't looking she opened her eyes and watched the stranger sleep. She didn't know what he had rambled on about or even his name but if he had some involvement in getting everyone sick she would have to kill him. He seemed remorseful but did he really have any clue as to all the pain everyone was experiencing, it would be impossible. Was he insane? A spaceship? He seemed earnest and when he talked she listened to him as if he wasn't insane or crazy, only now did it occur to her that none of what he said sounded right. She watched him all night out of the corner of her eye until dawn came. He woke up as he said and gathered his things.

He pulled out a piece of paper that he found while wandering. Someone had ripped it out of a book before tossing it onto the street. One side had writing on it and the other was bare. He wrote in clear neat handwriting, 'eat one of these kernels my kind lady and you will never catch the Roe. Keep the rest for your new family. Im so sorry. –JaaJaa. He tossed a small blue silk sack on top of the note that he placed on the table and then he turned and walked out of her life forever.

As soon as the door shut behind him she leaped out of her rocking chair to see what he had left on the table and was disappointed when she poured the contents of the sack on the table. All that was in it was a handful of green corn kernels. Setting the sack aside she turned her attention to the note. Stunned she looked at the note and then at the kernels. All night she was thinking about what he had said and it finally occurred to her after several minutes of disbelief that he was probably one of the aliens that had come down to save everyone with their new technology but wound up getting everyone sick. Without hesitation she ate one quickly. She could feel it in her throat sliding down and hitting her belly like a small ball of fire and then she felt GREAT! But she had to stay here with her mom and watch her so she sat down in her rocking chair with the only pencil in the house and some paper she was able to salvage and began to write as much as she could about that night.

None of her children or children's children caught the Roe, except Aigie.


	3. Chapter 3

It trying times such as the pickle she is in now, crawling through excrement, she thinks of her great family and friends that are at home waiting for her and it gives her strength and courage to put one hand in front of the other and keep breathing. After almost five hours of crawling in the dark she made it to a hatch way bumping her head hard on the wheel that sealed the door off. She rubbed her hands against the walls of the tunnel to dry them off a bit and then grabbed a hold of the wheel. Taking a few breaths she began to turn it as hard as she could, there was a horrible sound of scrapping metal but the hatch still would not budge. It had rusted around the sides. Her heart sank and began to pound irraticly in her chest from the claustrophobia that tightened around it. There was no chance she could turn around and go back, the thought was terrifying. She needed to calm down and think. What did she have around her? The piece of glass she had taken from the bathroom and urine/feces…. The thought that she was going to die down here crept into her mind momentarily and she actually started to turn around and crawl back down the tunnel when her palm slipped and her upper body lurched forward from exhaustion causing her to splashed face first in the muck, luckily she turned her head in time. \Pushing her self up slowly she grunted in complete disgust. As soon as she was back on her knees she instantly vomited, clutching her stomach she began counting backwards from one hundred. Counting usually helps her anxiety when she hits about 80 but she had to start again twice to regain her stomach. It was at that moment when it was like lights were turned on in the suffocating dark tunnel!

Turning around she slid up to the door taking out the piece of glass. Feeling around the edges of the tunnel where it met the door she began to carve and carve. Once she had a little bit of room she would take some of the feces and vomit and jab it into the pocket to lubricate it. It was such hot disgusting tedious work that was made worse by these conditions that when she found chucky pieces in the puck it actually gave her hope because they made it easier for her to push the mush into the groove. Finally when she had made it all around the hatches siding, she then started at the base of the wheel in the middle working her way around. Then when she was finished she rubbed her hands again on the walls. It was at this moment after spending a couple extra hours wading working on the hatchway and wading in the much that she thought 'If this doesn't work Im going to die down here.' That was all she needed. She turned the wheel like her life depended on it, adrenaline pumping in her veins. The screeching sound of the hatch started up again but this time the wheel began to move slowly, she knew if she stopped now she would never leave this tunnel, her muscles erupting with energy. It started to give. Finally the latch clicked and she couldn't turn it anymore.

After relaxing for a second she was able to push it open slowly the hatch made a low grinding sound until it was finally open. The air hit her face so hard that for a moment she was in a daze from the sweet smell of freedom. It was then that she gathered herself and crawled out of the tunnel. Her back hurt so bad from being hunched over that when she finally passed the threshold of the hatchway she crumbled to the ground in a hunched over position, her back unable to straighten itself. It was then that she blacked out.

When Aigie opened her eyes and her senses came back to her the first thing that greeted her was the smell. She had almost forgotten what had happened, like it was a horrible nightmare. It was not a nightmare, but she had survived! Her spirit was lifted for a moment and she was able to pull her self up onto her palms and push up until she was sitting on her calves. Throwing her hands up she grabbed a hold of her head, a headache ripped through her brain so hard that it caused her neck to lurch forward and bob on its own to the beat of the blood that pumped through it. She bit down hard on her tongue so as not to scream out loud, it hurt so bad! 'Breath slowly' she told herself. After a moment it was gone. Her legs were weak from the crawling and headache. When she stood they wobbled at the knees and shook uncontrollably.

It was like she had passed out on top of a pile of monuer and then sank a few feet until every inch of her was covered. Then she when she was completely consumed thrown on the floor of a strange bathroom. The muck that was on her legs, feet, arms, stomach, hands, and everything in between fell in large clumps as she lifted herself to her feet. She sucked up her nausea and cupped her hand against her right thigh and pressed down slidding the matter down to her feet. There was so much of it that she had to step aside of the pile she had made and create a new one next to it. When she was done she had almost a foot of muck next to her feet. After she had finished she looked around the bathroom for a sink and found one! It hadn't yet occurred to her where she was but what she did know was that there was a sink and she was so grateful to see it; she would've used toilet water to get cleaned up. She hurried as fast as she could over to it and turned the focets nob. The sink began to shake but nothing was coming out! After a minute of praying, dirt and mud began to spit out the spiget. After a few more moments the water turned clear. When it did she took all of her cloths off and began throwing water on herself. There wasn't a shower in the bathroom so she had to make due.

After she had cleansed her body, there wasn't any soap so she did the best she could, she grabbed her underwear and the strip of cloth that she kept to conceal her breasts and began scrubbing them furiously until they were of acceptable nature. It was only then that she noticed that the bathroom she was in looked exactly like the bathroom she had left. There was even a window above the toilet. Faded light shined through giving her the indication that she had been in this bathroom, on the floor, all day! She placed her undergarments on the window seal, it was barred from the inside, to dry and went back to work cleaning the rest of her cloths. Then she panicked! She had forgotten about her seeds! Everything would be for nothing if they were gone! Falling to her knees naked she began picking through the heaping pile next to her feet. After a while she got the idea to spread it out across the floor in order to spot the sack better. It was only then that she found it at the very bottom of the pile. Relief spread across her body in to her extremities. It didn't matter because her struggle hadn't been lost in vain, yet. She then turned back to the sink and rinsed herself off; grabbing her cloths she began to scrub them until they were satisfactory and placed them on the back of the toilet to dry. After setting them out to dry she rinsed herself off again. It was almost like she would never be clean again.

It was only when she was finally done did she turn back to the toilet and puke her guts up. Thank god it was a clean toilet. After puking whatever was left in her she stood up and walked to the exit. Exhausted she pressed her forehead against the door of the bathroom and began banging her head against it. 'wake up you have a job to do! Everyone is counting on you!' she said to herself. She moved her head to the right and pressed her cheek against the cold door. The mirror was looking back at her but she didn't know who stood in front of her. It was then that she turned around and slid down the door plopping hard onto the floor. Not a minute later she was fast asleep.

When she awoke for the second time she got to her feet franticly. She needed to get out of here before she was caught. It was her mothers rule to never rest in one place for to long. When she regained her balance she was able to look in the mirror again. She took a few deep breaths looking into the mirror, the sun had come up now and the tiny window in the bathroom gave her just enough light to see her reflection. It startled her, she was gaunt and malnourished. She looked as tired as she felt but knew she had to pull herself together. None of this was about her. She is a vessel of her God. She believes in right and wrong and if she didn't continue she would be wrong. If she gave up now and gave into the fear of being captured she would surely be captured. She hadn't come this far!

She opened the door of the bathroom slowly and cautiously took a step out into what looked to be a living room. Sucking in a breath she stood stone still as she listened for anything or anyone. After a few minutes she walked out into the room. Quickly she walked over to the first window she could find and looked out. She was in one of the houses that laid on the riverbank that separates East Rottingdam and West Rottindam. The coast of East Rottindam is littered with Vocanic activity and the middle is filled with mountain people. People you do not want to be caught alone and unarmed around. Use to be you didn't even look at those folks. There are tales that the roe affected them gruesomely, worse then the rest of the population. She needed to make her way into those mountains because there is a friend of the family that calls them home that would be able to help her. She has met him once before but he only spoke to her mother. He is an Ox of a man himself so he probably wont be to hard to find.

She paused momentarily in between on of the doorways and made her way to the back hoping for an exit. When she saw the back door she cracked it open to see if anyone was back there waiting for her. No one was and she was ground level. She always had to be very careful of the guards. "Whew, huh, huh." She took one last deep breath. She needed to scale the wall behind her in order to get on better ground. The city was a labirynth. A drainage pipe against the building behind her became the obvious choice and so as stealthy as a cat she gripped the sections of the wall that kept the pipe connected to the wall and began to shimmy up it. Her black cloths gave her camouflage but didn't hide her completely against the red walls. Five stories later she was finally at the top. Seven cloths' lines with cloths still attached crossed the roof. She crouched down and scanned the roof tops adjacent to her and could see men and women everywhere at every corner of the city, like ants that have been displaced crawling all over. She could barely breath their were so many of them. It was at that moment a terrible silence broke in her ears. A man had come from the downstairs and kicked the door open that lead to the roof top where she was. Thinking quickly she ran and hid behind some cloths that hung on one of the lines that connected to another building. The rather large man that had made the ruckus, which is a big blunder for the KOC on patrol, the punishment being time breaking rocks in the underbelly of North Rottingdam, stomped as he walked across the rooftop. Bourbon filled the air with its sweet poison and made her gag involuntarily. The alcohol didn't stop his senses from picking up the smell of woman on the roof top with him. His senses being elevated from the roe infection, he reminded her of a bulldog, with its fangs bared. Drool slung from his gaping mouth of gnarled teeth. He began to laugh, "HA, ha ha." His laugh was rustic and unmistakable. He knew she was here and she knew he knew she was there. "Here kitty, kitty." She wasn't impressed. He continued, "Here kitty kitty, your sweet smell fills me with butterflies precious." She wasn't afraid of the man just the commotion he could cause.

Akito, a martial arts that her mother taught to anyone old enough in her army, was what she would have to use with the hefty man that was barreling at her at full speed now. The cloths concealed her enough to give her the advantage. As soon as the time was right and she could feel his energy radiate off of her she jumped into action. Grabbing the line and wrapping it tightly around his wrist she leaned forward bending underneath him and began to spin wrapping her prey quickly like a spider which made him become unbalanced and fall backwards off the wall severing the wrist as the man dropped to his doom. As the man feel he let out a blood curdling scream that caught a lot of attention from the other rooftops. She laughed heartily knowing it wasn't funny but in a sense it was ironic. She needed to get out of this area in a hurry. She ran across the roof to the door he had come out of, still feeling the last moments of the man's life reel in her mind. She couldn't think about it, but if her mom had been there she knew she would've been proud.


	4. Chapter 4

It wasn't always like this on Comar, the war and fear. Once there was only politics and who was using too much of this or too much of that. The biggest conflicts for the Comar people were trade and economy, which city was more technological or which city had the best culture and food. Life was good and even in the darkest of times there was always something worth pushing on for, something worth living for. It wasn't uncommon to see the leaders of that time fighting over the most ridiculous things. The Aliens quickened the process of eradication; if they had not come when they had and brought with them the Roe the humans would've killed themselves off.

There are only seven Aliens, MEM, that landed here and they look strikingly similar to the humans of Comar. Perhaps its their soft features? Their shiny greenish white skin just does not seem human or even realist nor does their straight white hair or their bright green eyes. Good looks or not after the MEM landed they brought with them technologies beyond anything ever seen before. Suddenly people were able to kill other people without touching them, they are called shooters. They don't actually shoot anything except extremely powerful laser light that can eat through diamonds in very little time at all, let alone your skin. Also they brought mechanical gigantic Moles that dig burrows into the ground to make housing for the Aliens and more. They are huge, a story high, with metallic sheets for skin and large teeth made to take chunks out of the earth that lay beneath North Rottindam. North Rottingdam, also called Top Soil, because only the KOC live on the only farming area in all of Rottingdam away from the unaffected forcing the unmarked to hunt or starve. As was mentioned before there has been rumor that some of the law enforcers escaped the genocide and went south to live among the rebels. It is also rumored that they are procreating to create their army against the tyrannical Aliens and sadistic KOC.

The Elders at the Rebel's camp have said before that they think the Aliens are deeply insightful, that they heal, and they are strong and fast. From what we know of the Roe it must've been an ancient sickness they had forgotten about because they seem to be untarnished from the ferocity of the sickness. Make no mistake they are cunning in their words but little in numbers. It is unclear to the Rebels of their exact intentions but they do live in the underbelly of the northern quadrant of Rottingdam which is held by the KOC. It is odd that in the span of the last ten years they have doubled their size and have been trying to expand south of the North and NorthEast section. They haven't been able to do that yet because of the rebels who have thus far been able to thwart there advances.

No one talks to the aliens except specific top leaders of the Koc. There are twelve members of the council- all with unique abilities. Three of the twelve members became sick during the ugly beginning stages of the sickness on Comar and as a result haven't aged much since the mutation in their DNA leaving them scarred but still youthful looking. The Roe grabs a hold of the human DNA strand like wrestler and knots it up causing the worst cases to have eccentric powers and to never age.

The sickness, as it mutates from person to person, begins to age itself and become some what desirable because of the unique qualities it gives the possessor. It had been over a century sense the sickness went into intermission with the MEM's own culture on their planet, most of them are quite old.

The KOC, short for Knights of Comar, pray to the MEM and their demigod Areila, a heathen Goddess. The Rebels are the people that have broken free from the tyranny of the KOC and have settled in Southern Rottingdam.

It is the Roe that split the two peoples apart. In the Rebels the roe is quite uncommon because of a genetic deformity that is gratefully passed down from one heir to the next. However, for the ones that don't have this abnormality, disfigurement in the joints is quite common as well as swollen skin with boils and burn lacerations as beginning symptoms.

After the second wave of plague only two types of people remained the unscathed and the marked. A civil war broke out between the two peoples. The marked had been persecuted from early on. They were teased and laughed at and beat on. They were shunned and murdered towards the end of the Great Discrimination, a term used for the time when the people on Comar split from each other because the plague created devastatingly disfigurements that were gruesome and hard to look at or after. Families were being ripped apart and neighborhoods began making their war lines. It was about at that point when the sickness began to mutate and by then the marked out numbered the unscathed. The marked were still so hurt by the shunning of friends and family that they banned together.

There are two stories that should be mentioned: One of the Law Enforcer and of the Youthful Black widow.

The first one of a Law Enforcer

Once upon a time in Comar the law of the land was executed by the Law Enforcers. The question that they even exist anymore seems distant and small. After the last war it was said that all of the remaining Law enforcers were rounded up and slaughtered. Their immense talent and strength were only second to their humility and kindness to the Comar people. Rumors still circulate that some law enforcers escaped but no one has heard from one or been helped by one in ages.

He had a wife an child and a beautiful garden in the back of his small house on his own piece of land. That land he worked himself, creating a masterpiece of a garden that was good enough for his family. The neighbors had been acting suspicious recently. Coming over and talking to him about his garden and how he kept it up, more interest then they had ever taken on him outside of his job in up to ten years. His land is good size but not large enough to spy on him and not get caught. He had been watching them late at night come on his land and size up the place. The first time he was stunned but he second time he came out shooters, which he had received as a gift from the aliens but that is a different story, in hand and shot one of the men down. He walked over to the man that shuffled on the ground his leg bleeding profusely, and pointed the shooter at him, "If you ever come on my land again harassing my family I will kill you. I swear I will." The man on the ground, his face cratered with boils said "Your times a coming. Law Enforcer. Your times a coming." He shot and killed the man. He knew he had to leave. His child, a boy of 10 summers, had been playing in the family room when his mother approached him franticly. She put her hands on his face and kissed him gently and whispered to him; "Bad men are coming, and there isn't much I can do, I will hide you the best I can but there something you must do. You must take what your father has taught you, and all the lessons you have learned from me, and avenge us child or darkness will come and that is all our people shall see for a very long time." She took him away from the toys his father had made and got him dressed quickly. She, her self, was a good strong woman and began thinking up a plan. She packed lightly.

A youthful woman in the prime of her life marries a youthful man also in the prime of his life. She is so happy about the arrangements and being able to call herself a married woman that she doesnt realise the Roe has come and affected her town. She tended to the house all day and held parties with her husband in the evening, as they had always done. All that stopped one night when she found out that her beautiful youthful husband had gotten Roe. She herself was immune, but he wasn't. At first he didn't tell her because he was afraid and selfish so he didn't want to believe it. Luckily his skin began to change on his back, which she didnt see often and so he was able to marry her before she found out. It was two weeks into the marriage that he rolled over in his sleep and she saw with horror his back basicly melting away. She tried not to scream and snuck out of the bed. She had hear about things like this happening before. The skin begins to look burnt then it will began to ooze a bit and then scab. All that she could think of is why he did not tell her. It was the next day she cringed through and then managed to find a woman that knew about it. The woman told her that he must be atleast a year into the Roe. That was how long she had dated him and then gotten married. She did not know how she could have been fooled all this time. Some thing did plague her thoughts, that she had not done anything with him when they were dating on His wishes. She murdered him the next day and left the town for good.

When the effects of the disease sank in they found that they had powers. Karma had come and they were now strong and fast. The Great Evolution is the book in their bible that tells of the after effects of roe. They had lighting fast reflexes that were beyond conscious thought. Their strength increased ten fold and their senses increased so rapidly to the point the infected would be able to smell a jasmine plant in a field of roses. The physical mutations were permanent and nothing could be done about that except push it out of the gene pool through time. For the ones that were unscathed and survived, at first, they were taken by the aliens and examined. Some were even trained, and then some people were left on Comar to be ravaged by the sickness. The people that they did feel were good enough to take with them and be examined never made it back home.

First the KOC controlled the marked through fear mongering speeches and the printed word. The Rebels children were taken from them, usually taken at an early age, to fulfill their destiny to the Aliens. The KOC hunt down Rebels and sacrifice them to the Aliens.

There is always a right and wrong path it is the turns we take in it that create our destiny. The unscathed know this but of the ones that were left most are forced into ignorance by the tyranny of the KOC.

They are for the people, by the people, and rule the people and everything in their lives.

Crime, blood, despair grasped the city now. Their territory is North Rottingdam.


End file.
